When this Chap entered his current professional employ …

… he was handed a two-page list of acronyms and the like. And it suddenly hit him that there, as with (perhaps) many professions, entire communications could be conducted in a language entirely impenetrable by outsiders —

Asked to describe how he could improve his work, Mr Day told the Committee: “Each department has its own horizon scanning policy development machinery. If I was to identify the first risk, it is this work is stove-piped…. That mechanism starts before the disruptive challenge. Some of the stove-piping is broken down to get departments together about the issues that are approaching.”

Rear Admiral John Kingwell said his committee would conduct “deep dives and experimentation to consider the ‘so-whats’ for defence and security”. Greg Mulholland, a Liberal Democrat MP, had had enough. “I just look at some of the documents we’ve had, some historic and some current. Now it’s all about horizon scanning, trend analysis, road mapping, visioning, gaming, back-casting and this morning we are being told it’s about stovepipes.”